The proportion of self-managed superannuation funds that have borrowed to purchase property has trebled in the past two years, but administration company Heffron SMSF Solutions is adamant that the trend is manageable and not a sign that do-it-yourself funds are over-leveraged.

Heffron, which compiled the data from its own client base, said the proportion of funds that had borrowed to buy property was still low, at 12 per cent – up from 4 per cent in 2011.

“There have been a lot of alarmist statements about the rate of penetration of borrowing in SMSFs without much data to support these statements," said Duane Pinches, head of document services.

“The data shows that the rate of growth in LRBAs [limited recourse borrowing arrangements] is still quite small across all of our funds," he said.

Heffron published the data a day after Steve Harker, Morgan Stanley’s Australian chief, joined the chorus of experts warning about the potential dangers of self managed funds investing in property.

Mr Harker said he was worried that Australia was sowing the seeds of the next financial crisis by allowing people to invest in property through do-it-yourself schemes, a regulatory regime which could lead to a $200 blow up. The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have also warned about the risks of self-managed funds gearing to invest in property.